Getting ready for the 2016 Swiss Alps trip.

[anotherkiwi]

Hmmmm... I will have to try this Strava thing one of these days. You have estimated peaks of over 1000 W. We know the bike is capable of about 540 W maybe 600 W in a pinch on full power so you are providing quite a bit yourself.

Congratulations on the 8.6% average climb over 10 plus km! How did the battery like that?

Last week I drove up a couple of "mountain" passes that are shortlisted for rides as soon as I tidy up the loose ends on the bike. I promise to use Strava on those.

 

[soundwave]

the cx motor could get as high as 900w mind tho will have to wait until it has been tested

 

[EddiePJ]

Hmmmm... I will have to try this Strava thing one of these days. You have estimated peaks of over 1000 W. We know the bike is capable of about 540 W maybe 600 W in a pinch on full power so you are providing quite a bit yourself.

Congratulations on the 8.6% average climb over 10 plus km! How did the battery like that?

Last week I drove up a couple of "mountain" passes that are shortlisted for rides as soon as I tidy up the loose ends on the bike. I promise to use Strava on those.

Thankfully it was pretty much all tarmac and loose road stone today. Last year I had to stop four or five times over the last mile of the climb, as I was all but done in and couldn't get any traction. This year I made it up the last mile without stopping. I used tour for pretty much the whole way, then changed to sport about two miles away from the peak of the climb, by which point the battery had just dropped from two bars remaining to one bar remaining. Remembering last year and the struggle, I then opted to swap the battery for a fresh one at the one mile from top point, and just nailed it in turbo and first gear. The bike runs a 15t front sprocket, and first on the rear is 42t.

More of an interest to me in respect of average climb is this one. Completely off road, and much of it with terrain that was so loose, that it was even a job to walk on in my hard soled mtb shoes. How does this work out by comparison. https://www.strava.com/activities/658404106

 

[EddiePJ]

A sunny afternoon run back down from Wegnernalp to Lauterbrunnen. The steepness increases quite considerably at about the 15 minute point. It's quite a climb up from the valley bottom, although I did manage it on a 1990's pedal mtb a couple of years ago.

 

[Lee Parker]

As always eddie, Massive respect for the distance covered! As i can see from the Strava rides there is serious inclines!

Photos are breath-taking

 

[EddiePJ]

Many thanks Lee.

The trip for next year is already booked, and I have in mind to tackle a couple of very off piste sections.
I did a few this time around, and actually had permission to do so, as some were on hiking routes, and I was very conscious of not wanting to pee people off. The proper mtb route maps also leave much to be desired. They go from a weird mix of road work, then suddenly you are lifting the bike over a fence and picking up what are clearly tough hiking routes, and next to impossible to ride at all.
What did surprise me was that when I was on the hiking route carrying out the ride up towards Birg, every hiker that I met was all smiles and happy to meet and see me, and encouraged me on. I was going to quit the attempt a few times, as the going was so hard, but just kept getting spurred on to keep going, and one female runner even offered to help get the bike up one very nasty section. I declined the kind offer.
You can't even ride on a public bridleway in the UK without getting abuse from ramblers.

I took the route in yellow up to Birg, and next year I want to get to the Schilthorn, which is highlighted in red.

I did struggle with a few of the rocky and very steep climbs, as I tend to choose my bikes frames a size larger than I should, and it caught me out several times. Even my choice of shorts and top caused problems, with them hooking the nose of the saddle on several occasions, which made trying to sit down to get balance near on impossible.
I also need to have a chat with Bosch about reprogramming the way that the power is delivered, as the torque needs to be far more progressive.
I can possibly even see me taking along a kind of trials orientated eMTB next time.

As for photos, I either somehow lost or had the camera stolen on the way back through France yesterday. I have an idea that I must have neglected to lock the car at a service station, and I guess that is when it went.
I'm more fecked off about loosing some photos that I took of a 3metre high metal sculpture of a Predator figure from the Arnie film, than I am of loosing the camera. It was the most amazing piece of sculpture that I have ever seen.

 

[EddiePJ]

Birg cable car station to Stechelberg part one. The long pause at 2.07 and 2.57 is because despite riding up the route, I had no idea of where to ride when coming back down.

 

[EddiePJ]

Part two.

The walkers became a bit frustrating, and I stop at roughly the 6.20 point, as what the clip doesn't show, is that the strip of concrete is seemingly almost vertical.
I started to ride down it, but then decided to take a more zig zag route down to the side. My balls aren't that big, and I figured that riding a near vertical strip for 70 metres, might see me crumpled at the bottom in a mess. Next time.

Thinking about it, the clip also does nothing to show just how steep that most of the ride down was.

 

[LeighPing]

I know that feeling. Albeit on a much smaller scale. Better small live balls, than big dead ones.

 

[EddiePJ]

Part three, only one more to go.

Ten miles of down hill can't be bad!

Funny how where ever that you ride, you always somehow manage to get stuck behind a tractor!

 

[LeighPing]

I'd have been straight in that gasthaus @1:44

 

[EddiePJ]

Final sunny instalment of the ten miles trip back down the mountain from Birg to Stechelberg.
Sadly once a gain more walkers to contend with, the ride became more interesting for me at about the ten minute in point.

The clip even has three girls on mtb's on it, although sadly in the case of the two at the end, not nude!

 

[chris130256]

The girls were waiting for their friend who was pushing her bike?

 

[anotherkiwi]

Nude?

 

[EddiePJ]

The girls were waiting for their friend who was pushing her bike?

No they just happened to pull up at the same place that I did, then speed off to do their own thing.

The place that I over took the girl pushing her bike is another example of a clip of film not showing the true gradient.

anotherkiwi, I remain grateful that the first girl wasn't naked!

Last clip. This one forms part of the only wet ride of the trip.
I wasn't pushing it on the ever twisting road stone pathway where the tarmac ends, and just rode the route as smoothly as possibly, but when I finished the ride and happened to look back at Strava, I had bagged a 10th fastest time for the descent out of 115 attempts. I was really surprised by that.
Most people that I have seen riding it just skid up to the corners, which bugs the crap out of me as it is a shared track/path and just destroys it. Once again the clip does nothing to highlight the steepness. The constant barrage of metal drains across the road and path become pretty slippery as well when wet.

Just through luck, I have now found another route to try next year.

Can't see me riding up it though.

 

[EddiePJ]

Happy days, my lost camera has turned up.

Obviously I would rather not have lost it, but as the flash doesn't work, and it has other issues, I wasn't overly bothered about it going missing. What did bother me was loosing the last two days of holiday shots, or more specifically these ones.

This sculpture stands about 3 metres tall, and sits just after a bend in a very deep gorge.

There are some very talented people out there.

 

[EddiePJ]

And just to bore you even further, the last ride photos.

The final one shows some of the mega climb route up to Birg.

It is the lower station from this photo. I'm aiming to get to the second and highest possible station next year, which is at least another hour or so further on.

Sensible people take the cable car to and from both!

 

[chris130256]

Fantastic sculpture of 'Preditor' made from bike/car components. Particulary like the globe crafted by wheel rims.

 

[EddiePJ]

Chris, I have just discovered a ride to do next year.

I stumbled across it whilst researching another ride that I am trying to plan.
The last 5.7 miles of the planned ride are through a railway tunnel, which has an elevation gain of 4,609'. I'm currently seeking permission to do the ride, and hoping with fingers crossed, that the powers that be will let me ride it at night time, as part of a charity ride idea that is bubbling away in the background.

 

[chris130256]

Spectacular! Defo our kind of thing. Wouldn't be able to do the tunnel though. The wife gets claustrophobia! The glacier looks amazing, as though a giant car has driven over it.